Last Saturday I spent the day setting these blocks with sashing, putting borders on. The fabric has a cowboy print, so I call it the Cowboy Quilt (real original). Saturday night I spent the evening taking off the borders and ripping out all the sashing because I hated it. Sunday I re-set the blocks with new sashing and corner blocks and sewed the borders back on. Better. Here’s a shot of the work. (I like to keep my hands busy while I listen to Conference.)The limiting factors were that I’d bought the fabric in La Platte Maryland and Material Girls when I was there visiting and there was No More Cowboy Fabric in my stash. The second limiting factor was I was determined to use what I had–no purchases. I have some interesting cowgirl fabric for the back–it will be scrappy.
Since it is the Cherry Blossom Festival time in Washington, D.C. (we lived there for a year), here’s some of my shots.
These pinks are the color of my granddaughters’ cheeks. No wonder I like this color so much!
I was bedazzled by the quilts, the shopping, and low on energy this year, so I apologize–I didn’t write down the makers of the quilts. None of these are mine, and some may be found on the website for the quilt conference . They usually post the winners as well as put out a CD for purchase.
I focused my camera a lot on the quilting this go-round, interested to see if the quilters escaped the “stipple jail” and broke out some new patterns, new ways of filling in background. I also tried to find the new, different and interesting as I feel my quilting could benefit from a fresh way of looking at things.
The quilt on the left uses black tulle for an interesting effect. The snippets of fabric are layered in, then covered with a veil of tulle and quilted. More bright dabs of colors were laid over that and quilted down, creating an interesting foreground-background effect.
A faculty exhibit? The quilter depicts scenes from Australia in an interesting way.
The colors of this appliqué quilt are not the least bit traditional.We both liked the quilt as it said “hot chocolate, good movie and a quiet night,” of course, while cuddled up in this.How can someone not be drawn to this razzle-dazzle quilt?
A woman made this quilt in honor of her husband’s car and their road trip. The quilt docent was enthusiastically lifting it up to show everyone the back. After admiring it, we walked around the corner. I guess that last time she was a little too enthusiastic, as a series of quilts and frames and drapes came tumbling down. I looked over and she was standing there, still holding the corner of the quilt, looking shell-shocked. Many tried to help, but the show officials came and made it right.
Cinque Terre–one of the places Dave and I want to go to in Italy.This orangey quilt vibrated right off the wall–the use of the cool blues and greens really made it pop.
Dave and I had been to see Cristo’sThe Gates in 2005 in New York City’s Central Park. They had a quilt there that responded to that amazing art installation.
Okay, here’s some more shots we took of The Gates–can’t resist.
Now, back to the quilt show.
If I had this, I’d wear it everywhere. Maybe.
There was a special exhibit there about antique aprons–very fun.
Organization or, rather, lack of it, is the key: David Weinberger insists that “we have to get rid of the idea that there’s a best way of organizing the world.” Building on his earlier works’ discussions of the Internet-driven shift in power to users and consumers, Weinberger notes that “our homespun ways of maintaining order are going to break—they’re already breaking—in the digital world.” Today’s avalanche of fresh information, Weinberger writes, requires relinquishing control of how we organize pretty much everything; he envisions an ever-changing array of “useful, powerful and beautiful ways to make sense of our world.”
As businesses go miscellaneous, information gets chopped into smaller and smaller pieces. But it also escapes its leash–adding to a pile that can be sorted and arranged by anyone with a Web browser and a Net connection. In fact, information exhibits bird-like “flocking behavior,” joining with other information, creating swarms.
Obviously all my data has broken loose from its organization, which way is another way to say my room is a mess. (Which also means I’m working on my Mary Poppins snapping act today.)
“The world is this way, we wish the world were that way, and our experience of the world—how we see it, remember it, and imagine it—is a mixture of stark reality and comforting illusion. We can’t spare either. If we were to experience the world exactly as it is, we’d be too depressed to get out of bed in the morning, but if we were to experience the world exactly as we want it to be, we’d be too deluded to find our slippers.” –from the book Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 